Microsoft readying model-driven programming tools

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There’s an interesting (and somewhat long) read over on eWeek.com for those of you that get a little moist about declarative programming languages. Microsoft’s “Oslo” strategy, announced in October, has given way to a new programming language currently known only as “D” that’ll pass the “two-beer test” — as in, it’ll supposedly be easy enough to use that you’ll be able to program with it after two beers.

Height, weight, and tolerance levels have NOT been factored into the two-beer test, though, so if you’re a lightweight or you currently don’t drink at all, please be careful.

In declarative programming, the developer focuses on the “what” rather than the “how” of a process. A program is declarative if it describes what something is like, rather than how to create it. Better yet, in a typical procedural program, the developer writes instructions to tell the computer how to do certain tasks, while in declarative programs the developers instruct the computer specifically on what results result they seek.

[Microsoft Connected Systems Division architect Don] Box said Microsoft has two primary goals with its modeling initiative: to enable developers to write less code and to better understand their software…

…Microsoft’s current offerings don’t cut it for simplicity, Box said. “Right now it doesn’t pass my two-beer test,” he said. “I didn’t have two beers before the talk so I was able to do this. If I had had two beers, I would not have been able to write that XAML. Ultimately, we want things to pass that two-beer test.”